Hollywood has always loved the efficiency of shorthand to describe its actors. The "blond bombshell" label that Marilyn Monroe wore decades ago now belongs to Scarlett Johansson. And jockeying for "action hero" designation — passed on from elder statesman Harrison Ford to Tom Cruise — are up-and-comers like Tobey Maguire, Orlando Bloom and Brandon Routh.

Fitting the talent into neat little niches may be convenient for industry movers and shakers. But such stereotyping doesn't always benefit actors, especially younger ones whose cinematic longevity depends on breaking out of the parts they played as children and teens.

In other words, being pigeonholed is for the birds.

Fortunately, for actors who choose their roles wisely, the resulting performances are often those that extend range and take careers in a new direction. Take a look at three actors who are trying to break their molds this summer.

Paul Dano, 22Silence speaks volumes in 'Sunshine'

In Little Miss Sunshine, Paul Dano plays Dwayne, who doesn't talk until an hour into the film, thanks to his Nietzsche-inspired vow of silence. Nevertheless, Dwayne is a remarkably normal and wholesome guy compared with some of the recent characters Dano has played.

There was Thaddius, the unsavory teen who methodically zeroed in on the female lead (Camilla Belle) in The Ballad of Jack and Rose. "He was a sexual serpent and a predator," Dano says. "I was a real-life psycho in Taking Lives. We did a shot where I had to hold a rock over a kid that I kill." He played a kid with family issues in L.I.E. And in just-wrapped Weapons, Dano says he plays "a dirtbag."

Valerie Faris, co-director of Sunshine, "did say Little Miss Sunshine would be good for me, because it's different from the last couple of thing I've done," he says.

Dano, who describes himself as "this really relaxed guy-next-door type who wants to talk about books and music," deliberately looks for menacing roles. "I don't want to play myself," says Dano, who, for the record, did play a lovable dork in The Girl Next Door. In Fast Food Nation, scheduled for release in the fall, his character is an alienated teenager but is closer to Dwayne than his other damaged characters.

For Dano, being stereotyped is always a concern. He avoids doing television and teen movies for just that reason. A good balance may be his role in Where the Wild Things Are. The character, Alexander, is a monster, but with the emotional highs and lows of any kid. "If there was a teenage wild thing, that would be me," Dano says.

Lukas Haas, 30'Brick' breaks the innocence chain

Lukas Haas was 9 when Witness was released, and the image of his wide-eyed Amish boy, Samuel Lapp, has followed him ever since.

"I'm always the young guy that's innocent, like Samuel," Haas says. That's why he jumped at the chance, after having taken a break from films, to play The Pin, a criminal with a deformed foot who wears a cape and lives with his mother, in Brick. It arrives on DVD Tuesday.

"I get bored playing the same kind of role," Haas says. "For me, Brick was a departure from that innocence. I was the bad guy." And, he says, people definitely noticed his shift to the dark side.

Haas has been concentrating on more adult roles with a string of new films. In Material Girls, out Aug. 18, he portrays a "good-guy" attorney doing pro bono work for two sisters, one of whom — Haylie Duff — becomes his love interest. In The Tripper, he's the love interest of Jaime King. In Who Loves the Sun, he plays a jilted ex-husband. And though his roles in Swedish Auto and Gardener of Eden are more the lonely outcast, "it didn't bother me anymore, because I had been stretching in other ways."

Haas, who has made 36 films, concedes it's easier for actors to break out of a mold when they are famous. "If you have a name that commands a few million dollars for a film, people are willing to see you in a different light more quickly, because they know your name will help finance their film," Haas says. The downside, he says, is that if an actor doesn't succeed at "trying to switch it up, then people may think, 'Oh, he can't pull it off.' "

Rory Culkin, 17'Night Listener' has ears perked

Rory Culkin has always used his sylph-like qualities to play kids wiser than their years. He uses that subtlety again in The Night Listener, out Friday. He portrays Pete, a boy who suffered abuse at a young age.

After his appearances early on in You Can Count on Me, Igby Goes Down and Signs, Culkin had an epiphany when making 2004's Mean Creek. "My character had a lot of emotional breakdowns." Figuring few would see the picture, he decided to give it his all. "It humanized me."

Culkin started to make use of that more vulnerable side. In the recent Down in the Valley, he played "a weak, naive kid with few friends and who, because of his weakness, is victimized." And in the upcoming Chasing 3000, he plays a character with muscular dystrophy who uses a wheelchair.

Despite coming from a family of young actors — Macaulay and Kieran are his older brothers — Culkin says he and his actor friends think a lot about becoming stereotyped. One way to screw up, he says, is "by taking the easy way out — taking very easy roles." He could, he says, take kids' genre films. "But I don't know what that would bring me 20 years from now, except memories."

With casting directors paying attention to an actor's success with previous portrayals, every role, Culkin says, has significance. How will Culkin handle the transition to adult roles? "By lying kind of low and doing independents and not trying to promote myself in any way." Still, he concedes that "some typecasting is a good thing. It's always good to be the villain."